Panel wall

ABSTRACT

A MONOLITHIC AGGREGATE TEXTURED TYPE WALL FORMED OF LARGE PANELS MADE OF THIN BASE SHEETS COVERED WITH A BONDED TEXTURED COATING, WITH THE PANELS ARRANGED EDGE TO EDGE UPON A SUPPORT SURFACE AND MOUNTED THEREON BY MEANS OF PANEL MOUNTING STRIPS HAVING DOWNWARDLY EXTENDING FLANGES INTERENGAGED WITH HORIZONTALLY ARRANGED J-SHAPED STRIPS FASTENED TO THE SUPPORT SURFACE, THE PANEL MOUNTING STRIPS BEING SECURED TO THE BASE SHEETS ONLY BY MECHANICAL FASTENERS BEFORE COATING THE SHEETS, WHEREIN THE FASTENERS ARE COVERED AND CONCEALED BY THE COATING.

Nov 23, 1971 C. J. DE LANGE PANEL WALL 2 Sheets-Shoot 1 Filed March 2,1970 FIG! INVENTOR CORNELIS J. DELANGE ATTORNEYS NOV. 23,, Q J E L N E3,621,635

PANEL WALL Filed March 2, 1970 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 a a G D o a a \c on Q uINVENTOR FIGB CORNELIS J. DE LANGE BY M 5% ATTORNEYS United StatesPatent 3,621,635 PANEL WALL Cornelis J. de Lange, Farmington, Mich,assignor to Cement Enamel Development, Inc., Detroit, Mich. Filed Mar.2, 1970, Ser. No. 15,599 Int. Cl. E04!) 2/88 US. Cl. 52-235 ClaimsABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A monolithic aggregate textured type wallformed of large panels made of thin base sheets covered with a bondedtextured coating, with the panels arranged edge to edge upon a supportsurface and mounted thereon by means of panel mounting strips havingdownwardly extending flanges interengaged with horizontally arrangedI-shaped strips fastened to the support surface; the panel mountingstrips being secured to the base sheets only by mechanical fastenersbefore coating the sheets, wherein the fasteners are covered andconcealed by the coating.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION One method for finishing or for modernizing analready finished exterior or interior decorative wall is to apply to thewall surface a coating formed of small stones or aggregates, such asmarble chips and the like, bonded together and to the wall surface witha suitable resin binder. in the past, such coatings, generally formed ofthe aggregate and binder made up as a paste-like material, have beenapplied to the wall surface by hand, using conventional plastering ortroweling techniques.

While this technique produces an excellent surface particularly wherethe support surface is of a rough material, such as an old wall surfaceor an unfinished wall surface, the amount of hand l-abor required issubstantial, thereby making the cost of such coatings relatively high.

In order to reduce the amount of field labor, attempts have been made toform panels comprising a substrate or a sheet to which the coating hasbeen applied in a factory and thereafter securing the panels upon thesupport wall by means of mechanical fasteners. Since such panelmaterials are used primarily for exterior surfaces, numerous mechanicalfasteners are required in order to provide an adequate strength offastening.

In this technique, it is generally necessary to drill holes through thecomplete panel for the passageway of screws or bolts or the likefasteners and thereafter, after the panel is mounted, to patch the holeswith fresh aggregate coating materials. This too is relatively timeconsuming and expensive and in addition, tends to make spots or marks onthe finished wall where the patches have been applied.

Hence, the invention herein relates to forming a panel type wall usingaggregate coated panels but includes a mounting system which eliminatesthe need for field application of fasteners through the panel and whichprovides a system wherein the panels may be rapidly assembled with aminimum amount of labor and damage.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION The invention herein contemplates assemblingmounting strips to the panel substrate prior to coating, with mechanicalfasteners which are thereafter coated and concealed by the aggregatecoating material, and then using corresponding channel strips mountedupon the support surface wherein the panels may be rapidly mounted uponthe support surface by interengaging the support strips and channels.

The invention further contemplates using spacer strips ice which may behooked onto the wall support channels for spacing adjacent edges ofadjacent panels 'and forming a channel therewith which may be filledwith grout or other filler material for producing a monolithic wallconstruction.

The panel mounting strips which may be arranged either horizontally orvertically upon the rear face of the panel additionally serve to stiffenthe panels against wind loads and to align the panels in coplanarrelationship despite irregularities of the support wall surface andfurther permit rapid assembly by endwise sliding of the panels upon thesupport Wall and disassembly, where desired, by vertical lifting off ofthe support wall. Further, with the construction herein, the panels arespaced a short distance in front of the support wall, which may be ofany sort of material, to not only provide for air circulation but alsoeliminate the need for smoothing or finishing irregularities in thesupport surface thus making it easy to modernize an existing exteriorbuilding wall.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will becomeapparent upon reading the following description of which the attacheddrawings form a part.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective fragmentary view of theabutting edges of two adjacent panels and the support means for mountingsame upon the support surface.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken in the direction ofarrows 2-2. of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective fragmentary view of a spacer strip.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional elevational view taken in the direction ofarrows 4-4 of FIG. 1..

FIG. 5 is a view, to reduced scale, of the rear face of a single panel.

'FIG. 6 illustrates the rear face of a modified mounting means for thepanel, and

FIG. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of the modifiedmounting means.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken in the direction of arrows 88 ofFIG. 7.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 illustrates a fragment of an exterior panelwall 10 mounted upon a support surface ill which may be an alreadyexisting wall formed of blocks, concrete, stone or the like or may be asemi-finished or unfinished wall framework, such as a stud construction.

The wall is made of a number of large size panels 12 each formed of athin, substantially rigid sheet or substrate 13 made of a suitableconstruction material, such as of cement-asbestos sheeting or the like.Covering the sheet is an aggregate coating 14 which may be formed ofsmall sized stones or pebbles or marble chips or the like joinedtogether and bonded to the substrate with a suitable resin binder. Suchbinders and the aggregate coatings are conventional and hence no furtherdescription thereof is given here.

Secured to the support surface 11 are a number of horizontally arrangedsheet metal support strips 15 which are J-shaped or upwardly openingchannel shaped in crosssection. Such strips may be fastened to thesupport wall by nails or screws 16 or other suitable fastening means.

Inverted J-shaped panel strips 17 are horizontally arranged upon therear faces of each of the panels for interengaging with, by hookingover, the support strips 15. The panel strips 17 are secured to the basesheet or substrate only by means of mechanical fasteners such as rivets,screws or the like 18 which are applied before the substrate is coatedwith the aggregate coating material.

Thus, the strips 17 are assembled to the substrate and thereafter arecompletely concealed.

For assembling the wall, each panel, which preferably is provided with anumber of panel mounting strips 17, is aligned so that the strips 17 areend to end with the support strips and then the panel is slidhorizontally along the length of the support strips 15 for finalpositioning. The panels are thus positioned one by one to form thecomplete wall.

Preferably, a spacer strip is arranged between the adjacent edges ofeach adjacent pair of panels. The strip 20 (see FIGS. 2 and 3) is formedof a thin piece of sheet metal, such as one-half inch wide andone-eighth of an inch thick and is secured to the support strips 15 bymeans of struck out tongues or flanges 21. Thus, the vertical edges ofthe spacer strip contact the edges of the panels near their rearsurfaces, as shown in FIG. 1, to define a grouting channel which may befilled with caulking or grout or other filler material.

Since the panel mounting strips 17 are assembled to the panel substrateat the factory, they may be accurately aligned wherein the only skilledlabor required is that of mounting and aligning the support wall strips15. No other fastening operations are required in the field.

MODIFICATIONFIGS. 68

FIGS. 68 illustrate a modified form of panel mounting strip 30 which isformed in a channel shape, the legs of which abut the rear face of thepanel 12. The channels or strips 30 are fastened to the substrate 13(see FIG. 7) by means of screws 32 or other similar types of mechanicalfasteners, such as rivets or the like, prior to application of theaggregate coating 14 which thus covers and conceals the heads of thefasteners (see FIG. 8).

The base of the channel 30 is provided with struck out flanges ortongues 32 for interengaging with the support wall 15, for therebymounting the panels thereon.

This form of mounting strip is particularly useful where extraheavy-duty reinforcing is desirable for the Panels particularly in thevertical direction as may be required on various construction jobs.

Having fully described an operative embodiment of this invention, I nowclaim:

1. An aggregate textured type wall construction, comprising:

a vertical supporting surface having horizontally arranged, verticallyspaced apart support strips secured thereto, the support strips eachbeing formed with a base portion secured to the surface and an integral,upwardly directed flange portion to form, in crosssection, an upwardlyopening hook;

large size panels aligned edge to edge and arranged upon the supportingsurface, said panels each being formed of a thin, substantially rigidbase sheet having its outer exposed face covered with a thin coating ofan aggregate type material bonded thereto;

a number of panel mounting strips, arranged upon the rear faces of eachof the panels, and each having a base portion fastened only to said basesheet by mechanical fastening means which are applied prior toapplication of thecoatinguand which are cover d and concealed by saidcoating, and an integral, downwardly extending hook-like flange fittedinto and supported by an adjacent support strip hook forther ebymounting the panel uponthe supporting surfacef and, a thin,narrowve'rtical sheet metal spacer strip arranged between andabuttingeacli of the adjacent vertical edges of adjacent panels near therear faces thereof, the spacer strips each having central struck- .out,rearwardly an'd downwardly extending hooklrkeflanges hooked over andsupported by said support strips, and a filling material filling eachofthe spaces formed by the adjacent panel edges and the spacer strip; 1 iwhereby the panels are mounted coplanar a short distance from thesupporting surface and may .be mounted thereon by horizontally andendwise slidably intereng aging the panel mounting strips with the support strips, panel by panel, with the panels spaced by said spacerstrips and wherein the panels and spacer strips together form amonolithic, aggregate type textured wall in appearance. 2. A Wallconstruction as defined'in claim 1 said support strips each being formedof elongated strips of sheet metal bent into an approximately J-shapedin cross-section for supporting the panel strip flanges anywhere alongits length.

3. A wall construction as defined in claim 1, and said panel supportstrips each being formed of an elongated horizontally arranged strip ofsheet metal bent along its length into an inverted J-shape incross-section for hooking over the support strip.

4. A wall construction as defined in claim 3, and with each of thesupport strip base portions being formed'by the longer vertical leg ofthe J-shape being fastened to said panel base sheet by headed fasteners,such as screws, rivets and the like, prior to applying the coating tosaid sheet, with the coating applied over and thereby covering thefastener heads for concealing same.

. 5. A wall construction as defined in claim 1 and said panel supportstrips each being formed of an elongated,

vertically arranged strip forming the base portion thereof,

with said hook-like flanges formed by integral struck-out,

rearwardly and downwardly bent portions of said base portions.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Monk 52- 235 FRANK L. ABBOTT,Primary Examiner R. A. SCHWARTZ, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R.

